RT  - Signa Vitae
ID  - 10.22514/SV142.102018.7
T1  - Outcomes of very low birth weight infants born by vaginal delivery versus cesarean section
A1  - DARJAN KARDUM
A1  - BORIS FILIPOVIĆ GRČIĆ
A1  - ANDRIJANA MULLER
A1  - SANDRO DESSARDO
K1  - cesarean section
K1  - very low birth weight infants
K1  - vaginal delivery
YR  - 2018
SP  - 46
AB  - <p>The optimal mode of delivery for very low birth weight (VLBW) infants remains controversial. Despite lacking evidence of benefits regarding neonatal outcomes, ce-sarean section delivery is becoming more prevalent, particularly in early gestational ages. In our retrospective, multicentr study data were collected for very low birth weight infants born in two Croa-tian perinatal regions in a 3 – year period (2014. – 2016.). The final cohort consisted of 255 very low birth weight infants. The rate of delivery via cesarean section was 74.1% (189/255) and is one of the high-est reported in the literature so far. Infants born vaginally were born at an lower gesta-tional age, had lower 1- and 5-minute Ap-gar scores, lower birth weights, and prog-nosis as expressed by higher Clinical risk index for babies (CRIB) scores and were more often born following chorioamnio-nitis and had higher mortality rate until 7 days of hospitalization. Univariate logistic regression analysis showed that cesarean section reduced the risk of death before 7 days of life (OR 0.34 95% CI 0.182-0.667). This significance was lost after multivariate analysis. In infants surviving after 7 days of hospitalization, rates of short-term neona-tal morbidity (severe intracranial hemor-rhage, cystic periventricular leukomalacia (cPVL), late-onset sepsis, necrotizing en-terocolitis, kidney injury and retinopathy of prematurity requiring interventions) were not significant when comparing in-fants born vaginally and those born fol-lowing cesarean section.</p>